Cillian is happy to take the credit for the great work of this year’s fantastic mix of international reporters. He thinks CulTour had a wonderful team in 2016 and hopes you have as much fun reading as the team did putting the site together. Outside of the press, Cillian’s main interests are film, television, and travel. He wants to see the world even if he has to spend roughly 10% of his time abroad telling people his name is pronounced with a K. You can follow his mishaps on Instagram.

Always up for a chat over a good cup of tea and known for usually being heard first before seen is our resident Irish girl Sinéad. Talkative, energetic and enthusiastic are just three words to describe the 22-year-old who cites her chattiness as one of the main reasons why she went into journalism.
Since coming to Utrecht, Sinéad has fallen in love with the wonderful relaxed atmosphere of the Netherlands and of course cycling and says that deciding to study here for a semester was easily one of the best decisions she ever made.

Sinéad lived in Scotland for a year after secondary school where she fell in love with the beautiful and magical city of Edinburgh, where she decided to return to for her reporting trip to look at the rising cost of tourism in Edinburgh and what is being done to combat it. Back in her beloved home town of Dublin, Sinéad studies journalism at the Dublin Institute of Technology where she is also deputy editor of their university newspaper The Edition. Her main interests in journalism are particularly sports journalism and the new exciting world of digital media.

Jack Popeley is a 21-year-old Journalism student from Dublin, Ireland. He is someone who likes to go with the flow and see where he ends up. This view on life has allowed him to experience some really poignant things and places. His love of writing made him choose to study Journalism, after which he hopes to travel the world and create documentaries.

He is interested in world politics and humanitarianism, which are the things he can’t wait to go out and report on. He has experience in radio and print, both producing a radio show and working as an editor for a local paper in Dublin. For his reporting trip, he travelled to Munich and wrote about his experience there. He visited refugee camps, which was extremely eye opening for him. These types of issues affect us all, and throughout his career Jack hopes to bring such stories into the public eye.

Travelling is Alli’s favorite hobby and has made it a mission to explore as much of Europe as she can while she is on her exchange in the Netherlands. When she’s in Utrecht, you will most likely find her at an independent coffee house, or exploring the endless canals in Amsterdam. With a passion for writing and a concentrated interest in the growth of social media, Alli hopes her time in university will prepare her to work for an online media company such as Buzzfeed or Roosterteeth, where she can grow and develop her skill as a journalist even further.

Maxine is a 20-year-old journalism student from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. Her ¼ Dutch heritage brought her to the beautiful city of Utrecht for a semester abroad, and she was floored by the maze of canals, picture-perfect houses and endless bike paths. Otherwise known as “Max,” she spends her time eating, drinking and hanging out with friends at any one of Utrecht’s unique cafes, bars, restaurants. Needless to say, budgeting her money has been a difficult task over the past five months.

Maxine travelled to Budapest for her reporting trip with a very limited knowledge of Hungary and its culture, but she returned with a newfound love for the city’s beautiful architecture, fascinating history, delicious food and incredible nightlife. Among her other favourite European cities are London, Berlin and Amsterdam, and she is beyond grateful for the opportunity to travel so much over the course of this semester. Maxine hopes to one day work in radio (ideally as a co-host with Ira Glass for This American Life) but in the meantime she plans to travel as much as possible, meeting new people and trying new things along the way.

William MacMaster is English, originally from Kent but moved to Southampton three years ago to study. His main interests are literature, cinema and music as well as politics and human rights and these are the topics he usually writes about.Will is also interested in media production and has been involved in several radio and video productions and created several documentaries as well one short romantic comedy film.

He plans to spend his life just travelling around the world and visiting and learning about different cultures and then documenting it all along the way and not really ever settle in one place. Will’s life ambition is to write a novel but also wants to go skydiving or release a mixtape. He just want to be free and live life and believes that as Bob Marley said “My Riches are Life, Forever”. Hate celebrities. Love Grime music. Hate Carrots. Love Cheese.

Robert is CulTour’s expert on all things Luxembourg, asteroid mining and Grey’s Anatomy. Robert originates from Hamilton, Ontario and is studying journalism at Ryerson University in Toronto. He’s an executive producer of the Toronto basketball documentary Eastern, and considers himself to be the pioneer of the fake sponsored article industry. Robert likes sports and TV and comedy and movies and video games and science fiction and all-around cool stuff.

Veera is a passionate traveller, who likes to immerse herself in different cultures and learn about local habits and traditions wherever she goes. She has attended a Thai wedding, adopted a skull in Naples and gotten tattooed in Las Vegas. On a mission to see the world, her goal is to visit every continent and swim in every sea. Coming from cold Finland, she dreams of settling in a warm country someday and being a rich freelance journalist.

Our reporter Anastasia is from the Bavarian capital Munich, where she likes to spend her time outside in the many parks and beer-gardens. She not only loves drinking beer, but also travelling, taking photos, enjoying nature, exploring new cultures, and meeting new people. Driven by these interests, she travelled to the capital of Ireland, Dublin, which is well known for its Guinness-loving, friendly and open-minded people. There she set out to uncover the students’ situation in the city’s current housing crisis, and had a great time visiting this year’s International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival.

Back in Germany she is doing her Masters studies in communication science at the Ludwig-Maximilians University. Before she decided to discover the Netherlands and become an aspiring journalist, she wrote for a local newspaper in Munich and an NGO’s magazine, but also gained insight into the fields of marketing and PR. Taking part in the Utrecht School of Journalism program has shown her that journalism is the field she wants to have a future in, because in it she can act out her true passions – her curiosity, her love for people and making new memories as well as her longing for knowledge, seeking justice and always having a bit of an adventure.

Diana was never quite sure what she wants to be. Trying graphic design for some time, social anthropology for a little longer, she now stuck with journalism. Which turned out to be the right thing for her. Diana is mostly interested in international relations, globalization, politics and art. Travels to Nepal, Japan and Brazil gave her the opportunity to engage with foreign cultures and to get to know them from within.

In the future, Diana would like to study law or global studies. After, she wants to work abroad. At the moment, her preferred medium is radio although she likes all forms of journalism. Being called pessimistic by her friends, she thinks, that she is just realistic. As an Austrian, Diana gets often asked if she has seen The Sound of Music, but the answer is NO!

Jerome is a third year journalism student from Ireland. He is 21 and is interested in the journalistic fields of sport and foreign affairs. He has worked and been published in The Sunday Times. After university he would like to go on and study further eventually moving in to the world of journalism. Erasmus was a culture shock but a great experience and he was able to make a world of new friends.

When he returns home he will continue playing football for his home club and university. Other interests include cycling, listening to music and not watching Game of Thrones. He really enjoyed studying and living in Utrecht. Other than the people he met he loved the city, the Dom and the Dutch way of life. He’s currently looking in to bringing his bike back to Ireland in time for the start of college next year.

Karoliina creates the best ideas for her stories while going for long walks without a phone and loves starting her day with a large cup of mate tea. Some day she desires to own a big loft apartment in the countryside, become an author and speak fluent Turkish. You can follow her on Twitter or Instagram and try to learn a bit of Finnish from her posts.

Reda is a young journalist from Vilnius, Lithuania, where she has lived for the past 21 years. She describes herself as a person who is ‘strange in a good way’,and who is also really keen on science, technology, puppies, boats, and potatoes. Quite an interesting mixture, huh? Wait for more; she can also say that she would rather dance with you than talk with you!

One of her paper boats brought her to Spain, where she wrote some stories from two different cities. In Murcia she wrote an article about the problem of lacking water, and in Granada – about living in a cave. She found these two cities to be completely opposite from each other, even though they both are located in the southern part of the country. According to Reda, it was her first experience as an international reporter, so she feels very excited about it and hopes that you are going to enjoy her work!

This is our 20-year-old Spanish reporter Natalia Mateos. She always travels with the company of a good poetry book, putting together her two passions. Publishing a book is one of her biggest dreams and she can’t live without her friends and good weather.

This took her to the crowded streets of Rome where she discovered how art can be used to change the world. When she is not planning on becoming the first female president of Spain she likes to participate in debate groups, play sports and go to the beach. Back in Spain, Natalia is studying journalism and advertising in Madrid and she is convinced that everything can go in the right direction if you fight for what you believe in. She is addicted to chocolate and recognizes that she can’t live without her beloved naps.

Linda is our 22-year old ‘Typical Dutchie’. However, that is not how she would describe herself, as she is always looking for ways to escape the dreary Netherlands and discover new places.

‘Busy’ is her middle name but life would be boring otherwise. When she is not working or travelling between Utrecht and her beloved The Hague, she loves to read, write, travel and run. She dreams of running a marathon and backpacking around Asia, but most of all she hopes to one day make a living out of the things she loves most.